Nice to see Riddick: Rule the Dark isn’t being rolled out into theaters this September with any funky 3D added, as I think it will hold up as is without the gimmick. Personally, I hate wearing glasses over my glasses, although, it’s cool to take the freebie specs home and see if any games look interesting with them. Hey, I’m a firm believer in tech that multi-tasks! OK, I watched too many Good Eats episodes back when the Food Network was kind of still about cooking and not competitive food disposal contests mixed with crap “reality” TV… Oh, I’m not ranting here, folks… just speaking the truth is all…
When 2001: A Space Odyssey set the bar for visual effects back in 1968, movie studios around the globe kept trying to reach that level of polish and for the most part failed miserably. Outside of a few major and minor sci-fi hits and misses in theaters (Marooned, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun and Silent Running pop off the top of my head) and on TV (those bits of Gerry Andersen’s UFO and Space: 1999 that work), it wasn’t until the release of Star Wars that a major studio film had a visual aesthetic genre fans could glom onto almost universally for sheer “wow” factor. Granted, when Logan’s Run was in its production phase, I’m betting it sure looked “futuristic” to the very hard working teams building that huge model of the city and domes, the set and costume designers and yes, the visual effects crew, actors and director. Hell, it certainly impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, as a special Oscar was awarded the film at the 1977 Academy Awards. Of course, George Lucas and ILM made that award all theirs the next year in a film not predicted to do all that well by a few people (Lucas included)…
Still, that didn’t help matters much in my case, as even as a wee bairn of eight years of age, I knew Logan’s Run was going to be enjoyably junky thanks to the TV commercials and rainbow on those posters I saw in subway stations. Interestingly enough, it actually popped up on TV about a year later (an amazingly fast time for a major Hollywood film), and while I was fascinated by some elements, to my mind it still looked cheap and the story (which I didn’t know was even more edited for TV) was hard to follow. Naturally, even though I didn’t like the film much, I ended up watching every episode of the 1977-78 CBS TV series and just like what happened with Planet of the Apes on the network, it managed to be dumber than the film, but easier to follow once I figured out that nothing would happen to the leads because they needed to be around for next week’s show. But I digress… Continue reading →
Yikes and “Hmmmmmm…” Here we go. OK, folks – given the quality of some fan-made Lego movies (go hit the YouTube at your leisure and see for yourself), the very idea of spending a TON of loot for a CG film and all that expensive voice talent just makes me cringe a wee it too much. Yeah, it looks funny and yes indeed, LEGO probably got all the proper clearances for all those characters in one internet video conference call. Still, there’s something… off about this flick that I’ll most likely not see at all in a theater, but catch on the cable rebound circuit and think it’s not too bad at all (but still wonder if some super-fan could have done it for a few hundred bucks over the course of a few weekends)… as usual, we shall see…
One problem some of us cranky genre fans have with most of today’s Hollywood horror movies is too many of them end up with ridiculous plots, under-written, one dimensional (as in terminally dumb) sometimes nude characters going through the same ridiculous motions that get them bumped off in even more ridiculous and bloody ways at intervals you can set your watch to most of the time. Not to mention stuff like some inane product placement that makes those parts of the film seem like ads dropped in between kills for stuff that would kill you if you consume too much of it.
Oddly enough, all this and more makes Mario Bava’s seminal gore classic Twitch of the Death Nerve (or (A) Bay of Blood, Carnage, or Blood Bath or one of many other titles it’s been released as) one of my favorite “B” horror films. Maybe it’s the blinders-on Bava fan in me that makes me like this one so much (some awesome shots aside, it’s far from his best work), or maybe it’s because the movie is actually kind of (alright, REALLY) funny in a very twisted way. The story is nuts with most of its assorted beautiful, handsome or unattractive characters motivated by their greed and/or assorted desires becoming random targets (and I mean random in some cases) of a killer (or killers) with their own agendas. By the end when the bodies are laid out all over the island, none of it makes any sense because the ending literally and figuratively blows away the remaining bits of the paper-thin plot. Continue reading →
Jeah, jeah, I know it’s Jägermeister and NOT “Jaegermeister”, folks (oh boy, do I know the difference… but I don’t do that anymore, so perhaps I’ve thankfully forgotten?)… just roll with it, mmm’kay? Anyway, another nice and loving look at the heavy metal thunder about to roll into theaters soon in Pacific Rim. I must say that WB has a nice lineup of sci-fi/fantasy flicks this year between this, the just opened to positive press Man of Steel and the upcoming sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Of course, I’ll be camped out at home with the video versions as well once all are released, as this seems to be the best way to see any new movie to get the full story and way too much behind the scenes info at one’s leisure and NO crazy people yelling at the screen like they’re on a damned talk or reality show set on a roller coaster. Bleh…
Spoiler: Wait, didn’t (almost) everyone die at the end of 300? End spoiler. Well, OK, this sequel that takes up things after the events of the original film isn’t supposed to be “historically” accurate (hell, the first film certainly wasn’t) and you hopefully won’t see a headless, zombified King Leonidas blurping around, but I bet this trailer really gets the testosterone rumbling in all the right places for some folks. I didn’t like 300 that much until my second viewing, as I didn’t read the graphic novel until I decided to borrow a copy from a friend and play “shot for shot” with it. Hey, I like stylized film making, but I thought it was a wee too much CG-heavy in pretending to be a moving comic book. Still, it did well and got Snyder doing more and cooler stuff, right?
… But you should also add a bit of protein as well. Lizard chunks make a tasty addition to any meal, folks. Just cook them at the proper temperature, watch that sodium and remember, portion control is key. TIP: Using a smaller plate gives you the illusion of a larger meal. Add a small salad to your lunch or dinner and eat it first to become more full and avoid the trap of heavier fatty foods as filler. Er, OK, OK… I really have nothing else to say about this upcoming movie except for if it’s terrible I’ll be really disappointed. Well, I’ll still catch it on cable a few too many times just to check out the mechs and monsters, but yeah, if it tanks, it’s a shame for all that hard work and tons of money spent creating all this lovely wreckage…
Well… who said it was YOUR damn dragon anyway? Smaug is Smaug’s, so deal with it fast or start wearing that asbestos underwear and iron pants for a little extra protection…
OK, I was bored last night poking around the internet for E3 news and such, so when I happened to see this new Carrie poster, I had to chuckle a bit because it was a case of a little too much TMI in having the tagline AND title on the same ad. So, a quick MS Paint edit and voila! – you get at least a tiny bit of suspense back in a film that pretty much gives it all away in the poster and trailer anyway (just like the original did).
Hey, it only took me about 30 seconds to do this, so it’s not like I really did anything amazing… OK, back to actual work!
I’m not QUITE all aboard the Z train just yet, but as with any other movie I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and sit through it not based on any reviews or automatic hate coming from those who read the book and are cranky because the film swings so wildly away from the source material. Hey, it works for Game of Thrones, but you’re getting a series that’s going to run for a while as opposed to what’s crammed into two hours or so. Minus the home video version that will no doubt taunt those who paid to see this in theaters with words like UNRATED and Director’s Cut or maybe even the more tempting “Collector’s Edition” or (hold me!) “Z Edition”…
Yeah, I know you want at least ONE of those, right? Gotcha.
